Sheet-metal shaft



Jan.I 21, 1931.

c. A. FRAHMET AL 1.789.973.

sHEET METALSHAFT -original Filed Jan. 25. 192e 4 sheets-sheet 1 Invent-ou.

. .JAnQ Z7, 1931. I c. A; FRAHM ET-AL v 1,789,972

'SHEET METAL ,SHAFT Original Filed Jan.' 25, 192B 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 www Jan. 27, 1931. c. A, FRAHM AL SHEET METAL -SHAFT l Original Filed Jan. V25, 192B 4 Sheevts-Shet 4 'ar/ A. Malz/f7 E Pff/[Meinemrek/:elder )gaaf am uw Patented Jan. 27, 1931 UNITED STATES PATENT Iol-ElcE cui. a. rmx AND'EDMUND W. RIEMENSCHNEIDEB,A DI' CANTON, y(JHIO, ABBIGNOBS TOTHE UNION METAL MANUFACTURING COMPANY, F CANTON, 0R10, A CORPORA- TION 0F OHIO Original application filed January 25, 192,8, Serial .Na-248,358. Dividedand this 13, 1928. Serial No. 253,949.

The invention relates to hollow of metal sheets, strips or plates, and adapted for use in columns and as pillars, posts, oles, standards and the like; including sha ts of this `character which are corrugated or fluted to increase the strength of the same, as shown y in the Numan Patents No. 838,571 of Decemto collectively as sheet ber 18, 1906, and No. 888,114 of May 19, 1908. The present application is a continuation in part of the common subject matter set forth in the applications of Carl A. Frahm,

1926, Serial No. 134,394,

filed Setember 9 dmund Riemenschneider, filed December 30, 1926, Serial No. 157,981; and this application is a division of our parent application for patent for improvements in sheet metal shafts and method ofl making same, filed January 25, 1928, Seriall No.

249,353, and the object of the present improvement is to increase the strength of shafts of this character when made of metal sheets, strips or plates, hereinafter referred metal; and the general object of the present improvement is to produce a sheet -m'etal shaft having a greater strength against compressing, bending, flexing and torsional strains than has heretofore been attained, the shaft being especially adapted for use as telegraph, telephone, transmission or trolley poles, having greater `strength and being lighter in weight and neater in appearance than poles at present in use for such purposes.

In the manufacture of fluted sheet metal shafts, whether the same have been made from light gauge sheets or heavy the metal has been merely bent laterally over the ribs of a mandrel to form the fillets and flutes in the shaft, Without changing the thickness of the sheet metal at any point, and

without materially increasing the elastic,

limit of the metal beyondthe normal strength of the same in the sheet from which the shaft is made,

Although sheet metal shafts made in this manner are strengthened to a certain extent by corrugations or flutes formed by bending the metal, it has been found in actual practice and by tests, that when subjected to strains or blows, such shafts will invariably SHEET-METAL SHAFT shaftsmade metal in certain places,

gauge plates,

HEISSUED application med February bend or buckle inward 'more readil than similar shafts havin sharp edged fillats between the flutes; andlry a mere -bending of the sheet to form flutes or fillets it has been commercially impossible to uni ormly obtain an architecturally correct outline in the shaft, or to produce the sharp corners or ed es in the fillets which is essential in Doric an or Corinthian columns; these detrimental characteristics becomin more apparent and exaggerated as the thic increased.

- Beginning with the formation of a'tubular shaft, the present invention includes a compression, as by cold rolling, of the sheet metal wall of the shaft so as to change the molecular arrangement of the metal and increase the elastic limit thereof. v

Also, the formation of flutes and fillets by a swaging and flowing compression of the metal, as by cold rolling, whichA displaces 'the forms sharp edges in the fillets and changes the molecular arrangement of the metal; strength of the fillets not only by an increased thickness of the metal, but b an increase in the elastic fillets.

, Moreover, the compressing or cold rolling operation straightens any longitudinal camber or bends and any circular imperfections there ma. be in the contour of the tubular shaft, an sets the molecular arran ement of the metal in the same so that a finis ed shaft -may be split longitudinally and each half will holdits shape for matching and being vreadily 'oined to the other half, vhich cannot be done y operations.

A flutiifg machine of the type set forth in the Frahm Patent No. 1,605,628 of November a shaft formed merely by bending in Ionic so as to increase. theA ess of sheet used is limit thereof in t e region of the .2, 1926, when properlynodified and operated i showing the tubular shaft positioned thereon for a cold rolling and fluting operation;

Fig. 3, a. perspective view of a fluted shaft of the Doric order, embodying the invention;

Fig .4, a similar view of an Ionic or Corinthian shaft;

Fig. 5, an enlarged transverse section through a portion of an ordinary fluted tubular shaft of the Doric order, made by the ordinary bending method; Fi 6, a simi-lar view illust-rating the method o making fillets in the improved shaft of `the Doric type, by cold rolling and extruding the metal for increasing the thickness at the angles and sharpening the same;

Fig. 7, a fragmentary enlarged section, showing details of an improved filletv of the Doric type;

Fig. 8, a similar view of an ordinary fluted shaft of the lonic or Corinthian order, made by the ordinary bending method;

Fie. 9, a similar view illustrating the method of making fillets in the improved shaft of the Ionic or Corinthian ty e, by cold rolling and extruding the metal ihr increasing the thickness at the angles and sharpening the same;

Fig. 10, a fragmentary enlarged section showing details of the improved llet of the Ionic or Corinthian type; and

Fig. 11, a fragmentary transverse section through the mandrel and shaft, showing one manner of finishing the formation of the flutes by rolls.

Similar numerals refer to similar parts throughout the drawings.

When a tapered tubular shaft 14 is used,

the same may be formed from a tapered blankI or strip of sheet or plate metal y bending rolls and forming dies and edge welding l means, as set forth in Riemensehneiders application for tubular lcolumn forming machine, iled August 30, 1926, Serial No. 132,-

369; and when so formed, the diameter of.

the tubular shaft may be and preferabl is slightly larger than the diameter of the llet formingribs of the fluting mandrel, so as t0 give a circumferential fullness to be taken up and trued by the cold rolling and flute forming operations, as shownin Fig. 2.

When the fluting operations are performed by a machine of the type shown in said Frahm Patent No. 1605,828, the mandrel body 15 is provided with a series of equally spaced steel die bars or ribs 16 or 16a, extending radially from the periphery-of the body, and each rib may be provided.' with a substantially V- shaped outer edge 16 or 16a for contact with the inner face o f the tubular shaft 14, as shown in Figs. 6 and 9.

' The mandrel with the tubular shaft mounted thereon as shown in Fig. 2, is moved one or more times endwise between a set or series of radially yieldingr rolls as 17 or 17 a, shaped to form the desired outline of the fillets to be There may be, and usually are required to he, two sets or series of such illet forming rolls arranged to operate upon alternate fillets, because there is not roomenough to place all the rolls in a single stand; and these rolls may be and preferably are provided with sharp angle V-shaped annular grooves 17 to produce the sharp edge fillets 18, as shown in Fig. 6, or may be provided with the flat bottom annular grooves 17a to produce the flat face fillets 19 with sharp edges 19', as shown in Fig. 9. l

Suicient pressure is applied to the fillet formin r rolls to displace or swage the metal in the 'llets as the same passes through the rolls,l and cause the metal to flow and extrnde into the grooves of the rolls, to increase the thickness of the metal at that place and also orm a sharp edge or sharp edges in the `llets.

The same operation cold rolls .the metal in and adjacent to the fillets, and by changing the molecular arrangement of the same, increases its elastic limit and thereby increases the strength of the fillets as well as of the colunnnbeyond that of a sheet metal column formed by merely bending the metal.

The same cold rolling operation also elongates the metal in the fillets and increases the length of the shaft to an extent which has been found in practice to be from one-halt of one per cent to four and a half per cenlI longer than the ori final tubular shaft.

During the descri ed operations upon 'the fillets, the sheet metal between them is partially formed into utes, as shown in Fig. 6, and the metal therein being relatively softer than the cold rolled fillets, and being necessarily extended longitudinall by stretching to the extent of the increase length of the shaft, may also be stretched somewhat laterally in the formation of the flutes so as to slightly increase its elastic limit.

Whereupon the mandrel with the fillet formed shaft thereon is passed one or more times between another set or series of radially yielding rolls 2O and 20', shaped to form the desired concavity of the flutes and bearing upon the shaft at and between adj acent fillet forming die bars or ribs 16, ns shown in Fig. 11.

The action of these rolls not only stretches and shapes the flutes, but completes the action of the fillet formin rolls and sets the molecular arrangement o the metal and relieves the same of flexing strains, so that the shaft will hold its shape thus given, even though it may be severed longitudinally into two lateral halves.

Moreover, the same operations serve to straighten the tubular shaft longitudinally and to true its shape circumferentially, so

formed and truly shaped straight shaft wit sharp edfre fillets of the t iven to them by the fillet forming rollsype g The elongation of the shaft by the cold rolling o eration is accompanied by the taking up o the circumferential fullness of the same to such an extent that after the fillets have been formed as described, the shaft -fits the mandrel so tightly that it is difiicult if not impossible to remove the shaft from the mandrel until after the stretching action of theflute formin rolls, which acts to loosen the shaft from t e mandrel, so as to permit an endwise removal therefrom:

It has been found by actual tests that sheet metal shafts formed and fiuted by the improved method described herein, have a greater strength and a greater limit of elasticity than any other known form of tubular shafts of considerabl greater weight made by merely bending the sheet metal' and at the same time the shaft is formedwith clean-cut sharp lines and with shar edges on the fillets, thereby producing a sha t of architecturally correct outlines and appearance, which cannot be made by a bending formation.

It has also been found b actual tests that the increased thickness of t e metal in the fillets, the extrusion of the metal in the sharp angles thereof, and the increased elastic limit of the metal in the region of the fillets, so greatly increases the ultimate strength of the improved shafts over the strength of shafts fiuted merely by bending, that they will bulge outward at a point of rupture and after rupture will stand a considerable loading, instead of bulging inward under strain or im pact at a point of rupture in the manner common to all other known types of tubular shafts. l

It is not intended to limit the broad idea of cold rolling a tubular shaft to increase the strength thereof by increasing the elastic limit of the metal, to the formation of a fluted shaft, as set forth herein by way of illustration; it being evident that a cold rolling'of an imperfectly shaped tubular shaft will serve not only to straighten the same longitudinally and true the same circumferentially by changing the molecular arrangement of the metal, but will also serve to strengthen the shaft by the ,resulting increase in the elastic limit of the metal.

Nor is it intended to limit the vbroad idea of compressing the metal with sufcient force to shape the fillets alone, or both the fillets and the flutes, and to swage and displace the metal in the fillets to cause it to flow and extrude a predetermined thickness and shape;` to the' cold4 rolling operations which are described herein for illustrating .thicker in the region of :the preferred method of applying such pressure. p

Nor is it intended to limit the. scope of the invention to the tapered tubular shafts described herein by way of illustration, for

obviously 'the broad idea'of the improved,

method may be used as well for the production of tubular shafts without a taper, and to shafts having an entasis.

In the claims appended hereto, the expression sheet metal is intended to include strips and plates as well as sheets of metal, and the term shaft is intended to include pillars, posts, poles, standards, columns and the like. Y

We claim Y 1. A tubular shaft formed with flutes and fillets made of sheet'metal, the metal in the fillets having higher elastic limit than the metal in the fiutes.

.2. A tubular shaft formed with flutes and fillets made of sheet metal, the metal being the fillets than elsewhere;

3. A tubular shaft formed vwith flutes and `i filletsmade of sheet metal the thickness of the metal being greater in the fillets than in the flutes. Y

4. A tubular shaft formed with Hutes and fillets made of sheet metal, the edges of the fillets being sharper than the edges of fillets formed merely by bending the metal.

- 5. A tubular shaft formed with flutes and fille s made of sheet inetal, thethickness of the metal being greater' in the. fillets than in vthe flutes, and the edges of the fillets being*v sharper than the edges of fillets formed merely by bending the metal.

6. A tubular shaft formed with flutes and fillets made of sheet metal, the thickness of the metal being greater in the fillets than in the flutes, and the metal in the flutes having higher than the normal elastic limit inherent in fillets formed merely by bending the metal.

7. A tubular shaft formed with flutes and fillets made of sheet metal, the thickness of the metal being greater in the fillets than in the flutes, the metal in the fillets having higher than the normal elastic limit inherent in fillets formed merely by bending the metal, and the edges of the fillets being sharper than the edges of fillets formed merely by bending the metal.

8. A tubular shaft with flutes and fillets made 'of sheet metal, in which the molecular yarrangement 0f thernetal in the region of the 9. A'tubular shaft formed with fiutes and v fillets made of sheet metal, in which the molecular arrangement of the metal in the fillets is changed from the .arrangement inherent in the sheet from which it is made, and the elastic limit of the metal in the fillets is higher than the elastic limit inherent in said sheet when the 'fillets arel formed merely by bending the metal.

In testimony that we claim the above, we

have hereunto subscribed our names.

CARL A. FRAHM.

EDMUND W. RIEMENSCHNEIDER. 

